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12 thoughts on “Zen in the barn”

We have recently started raising rabbits, and have been needing to find this peace too. Mama rabbits are notorious for being crappy mothers, until their second litter. They almost always lose their first. It breaks my heart every time it happens, but I’ve learned that there is nothing I can do!

We lost three sheep this winter, rather suddenly. And we’ve lost a few ducks, chickens and a hog. It’s just how it goes with farming. It was hard at first not to feel guilty, like it was all our faults. In some ways, we were to blame because we only ave two years under our belts as farmers and didn’t recognize some of the signs of illness. However, as the days go by, I’ve come to realize that death is just far more present in farm life than urban life. It’s more raw and more real. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but sometimes it really sucks. Comiserating, or just relating in general, with other farmers really helps.

You sound really tuned in to those ewes, lovely. I hope the babies make it. Did you give them colostrum? You can get it powdered or frozen. I too tend to know when my girls are ready, and they seem to want me close?
They tend to separate themselves from the rest of the troop and go round in circles, getting up and down as if ‘nesting ‘. Then when they are really close they do what we call the ‘starry gaze’, they have their heads up and seem to be looking to the heavens for help. The lambs are usually out then within 20 mins. But no two are the same. If any are circling or restless we usually separate them and by that time I would be in the barn with a sleeping bag and a flask of hot tea!
Good luck with the rest. I am sure they’ll pull through with all the love and care you and your family can give.

I know how farming goes, on a very small scale. We have kept chickens (and a couple of ducks) for several years now. I cried my eyes out when the first couple of chickens died – some got sick, we’ve had a possum, maybe once a hawk, and my husband had to kill two because they were suffering with their illness. For two vegetarian animal lovers who treated their chickens like pets, not livestock, we took these things personally. But as the years have gone by, we have come to realize that yes, chickens will die. Sometimes for what seems like no reason. Or yes, a nasty possum did get one, but it was in the dead of winter and he was just trying to survive.
Something as large and cuddle as a lamb though – I’m not sure I would be as zen like about it as you.